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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.0
Introduction
Malaysia has witnessed an explosive rise in the demand for transport vehicles
in recent decades in conjunction with its rapid economic growth. Currently, the
number of private own vehicles registered in Malaysia shows increasing trends.
Malaysia’s national car projects also have played a role in motor vehicle growth by
limiting the options available to the government. The public transport system in
Malaysia is poor and hence, the private transport flourished increase in private
transport usage between the years 1985-2005. Private vehicles today have become
the main means of travel of urban living in developing countries. Consistent
economic growth, rising incomes, and urbanization have led to rapid growth in
vehicle ownership and usage hence increasing number of road accidents.
Road accidents and injuries is a health problem worldwide. This trend is
expected to increase as the world continues to motorize. Each year, the number of
vehicles on our road is increasingly exponentially. In 2007, a total of 1 034 418 new
vehicles were registered and making up of a total of 16 825 150 vehicles registered in
Malaysia in which 44.3% were cars (RTD, 2007). The World Health Organization
(WHO) report entitled World Report on Road Traffic Injury and Prevention
estimated that traffic accidents are responsible for approximately 1.2 million deaths
per year and 50 million injured people all over the world (WHO, 2004). Based on the
current trend, projections estimated that these accidents will be the third most
common cause of death by 2020 (Murray and Lopez 1996) in the world.
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There are proven that Malaysia has one of the most modernized road
infrastructures in this part of world. However, the injuries including road traffic
accidents are third causes of admission and fifth cause of death in Malaysia
government hospitals in 2003. In the year 2003 about 17 people are killed a day.
(Health Facts, 2003).
Figure 1.1: Statistics of population, vehicle registered and road accident vehicle
registration (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2011)
1.1
Background of Study
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A road accident is recognized as a dominant cause of injury and death
worldwide and Malaysia is no exception in this scenario. According to Figure 1.1,
road accident is increase 17,091 from 2009 to 2010. There are many factors that
contributed to road accident. The factor includes weather, vehicle condition, road
structure and human factor. Government has taken many actions to prevent road
accidents such improving road and highway, completed with digital signage to
ensure road users be aware on the road, but the number of accidents keep increasing
year to year. Time to time, half a million of
Malaysians died because of road
accidents and the highest cases of road accidents are caused by the drivers’ behavior,
equipment failure and the road conditions and infrastructure.
According to Road Transport department research (2002), accident casualty
and deaths by vehicles for Malaysia 2000-2006, the number of road accidents
increased to 400 cases and it decreased in 2006 that was only about 600 cases
(21,600 cases) had been reported. The first thing that contributes to the reason for the
road accidents that happen in Malaysia is the drivers’ behavior. Humans are always
do mistake and not careful. When a problem or unwanted thing happens, they tend to
blame somebody or something else for what they have done. Most people that get an
accident believe the other party involved could have done something different to
avoid the accident. According to The Royal Malaysian Police, PDRM (2006) report
saying that 90% of accidents happen from this reason.
1.2
Problem Statement
Malaysia’s accident rate is ranked as the one of the highest in the world. The
bad habits of Malaysian drivers who like to speed without considering the risks is
one of the contributory factors for the high accident rate in the country. On the
average, there are 18 deaths each day due to road accidents and that 300 000 children
are made orphans because this trend. This situation is very worrying and that the
government is confident that the best way to handle the issue is to educate the public
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and create awareness of the importance of road safety and road courtesy at grassroot
levels.
There are many causes of accidents. This includes dangerous driving,
technical faults, weather, road signage and design of the roads. However, the
improvements in term of automobile technology in term of safety have achieved
certain level. Road signage and road designs have also being improved, where
various blackspots have been identified and studies have been carried out to mitigate
the causes of the road accidents. However, it was found that the accident rates still
keep increasing year by year.
Currently, most studies have proven that drivers are responsible for the main
cause of accident. Most drivers tend to have the attitude of overestimating their own
ability and the capability of their vehicles to react within the sufficient time to avoid
crashes (e.g. the driver’s often follow too closely to the vehicles in front). Malaysians
like to speed and a review of high-profile road accident cases indicate that the drivers
were speeding at 160-180 km/hour (Ahmad Farhan, 2011). The driver’s attitude that
leads to the road accidents has not been identified in most studies in Malaysia.
Malaysian Government was more concentrating on the improvements in order to
reduce the accident rate. Hence, in this study, identification of driver’s attitudes was
carried out to understand the cause of road accident. At the same time, explored the
possibility measures in curbing the road accidents.
1.3
Research Objectives
This study is aimed to achieve the following objectives:
i.
To explore the drivers’ demographic and perception towards road safety
issues.
ii.
To investigate the perception of the road user especially on various aspects of
road safety, this includes speeding and aggressive.
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iii.
To suggest some possible solution this would eventually improve the road
safety conscious among car drivers.
1.4
i.
Research Questions
Does the factor of drivers’ demographic have awareness towards road safety
issues.
ii.
What is the perception of the road user especially on the various aspects of
road safety, such speeding and aggressive?
1.5
Significant of the study
This study can be useful to the law enforcement authority to come out with
suitable measures in tighten up the enforcement especially in term of attitude of
drivers in order to reduce the number of road accident in Malaysia. Besides, this
research will serve as a reference for the future research. It is also beneficial for other
researcher to study more deeply on the factor contribute to road accident in the
future.
1.6
Scope of the Study
Pasir Gudang, which becomes part of Johor Bharu had been chosen as the
study area for this research due to several reasons. Firstly, Pasir Gudang had become
one of the fastest growing areas in Johor Bharu due to its unrevealed potential.
Secondly, under such a fast developing, the environmental quality of the housing
area near to the city center had become main concern for transportation issues such
accident. Therefore, it is best to study driver attitudes towards road safety in Pasir
Gudang. Table 1.1 shows six residential areas that involved in this study.
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Table 1.1: Residential area in Pasir Gudang (source: PBTPG)
1.7
No.
Residential area
1.
Taman Mawar
2.
Taman Bukit Dahlia
3.
Taman Air Biru
4.
Taman Cendana
5.
Taman Kota Masai
6.
Taman Pasir Putih
Limitation of the study
The researcher may encounter problems in conducting this research study.
Some limitation that involve in this study is lack of references. There were not many
studies carried out on road accidents caused by drivers’ attitudes, especially in a
developing country such as Malaysia. Currently, secondary data and literature review
are mostly from studies done in overseas including United States, United Kingdom
and Australia. Literature review and secondary information on this topic were found
to be lacking.
1.8
Expected Contribution
The findings of this study will contribute to the knowledge of drivers’
attitude, which lead to road accidents. Therefore, through the findings of this study,
the characteristic of driving behavior that causes of accident and the target group for
road safety campaigns would be identified. These finding would be useful for future
research and policy-making for road safety issues.